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Valerie Wilson, director, Economic Policy Institute s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy.Manuel Pastor is professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California

Summary: The Economy of Race and Class Inequality: A Dream Deferred
featuring
Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy. Prior to joining EPI she was the vice president of research at the National Urban League. She has written extensively on issues of wealth disparities and access to higher education and was selected to deliver the keynote address at an event on Minority Economic Empowerment at the Nobel Peace Center
and
Manuel Pastor is professor of Geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is the founding director of the Center for Justice, Tolerance, and Community at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and professor Pastor currently directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity at USC and is co-director of USC s Center for the Study of Immigrant
Integration. He has co-authored Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America s Future and authored This Could Be the Start of Something Big: How Social Movements for Regional Equity are
Transforming Metropolitan America

For workers the recession exacerbated their economic hardship. But, for corporate America it created the opportunity to mold the economy into something approaching the Third World model: vast wealth, power and privilege for those at the top, and chronically high unemployment, falling wages, limitations on benefits and also inadequate or nonexistent public benefit entitlements for the rest of society. The new normal for America is that it has become a sweatshop nation. While we have experienced generations long wealth inequality the gaps are widening and particularly so for people of color. Our discussion will tackle the development of
capital during this period & complementary government policies that have led to a decline in the fortunes of the working class and the super exploitation of people of color. And then our discussion will explore what is required to change course and bring about a greater redistribution of wealth for the 99%.

Credits: produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg

Notes: please email us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org